Threat of deadly SARS outbreak vanishes -- at least for moment

May 15, 2005|By Jim Yardley, the New York Times

BEIJING -- Two-and-a-half years after a mysterious respiratory illness from southern China infected thousands of people around the world and brought dire predictions of a recurring and deadly plague, the virus known as SARS has again provided a surprise.

It has disappeared, at least for the moment.

Not a single case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported since late 2004. It is the first winter without a case since the initial outbreak in late 2002.

In addition, the epidemic strain of SARS that caused at least 774 deaths worldwide by June of 2003 has not been seen outside a laboratory since then. SARS is not even the nastiest bug in its neighborhood, as health officials warn that avian influenza in Southeast Asia poses a far greater threat.

In cities such as Guangzhou and Beijing, once under a state of alert because of SARS, public hysteria about the disease has given way to public nonchalance. "Very few people talk about it anymore," said Cheng De, 22, as he walked through a subway tunnel last month in Guangzhou.

Health officials in China also are less alarmed, but they warn that SARS could still pose a threat. This caution is partly because so much about the virus is still not fully known.